Disney Genie/Genie+ On Their Way to Anaheim

[Ryan120420]

Genie has made standby lines miserable.

Today I waited in a posted wait of 25mins for Soarin, it took 55min. When I got to merge they were only taking 2 party's of Standby guests and all the rest Lighting Lane. Despite the LL queue not being backed up, the CM would wait for LL guests to come and would not fill the gap with standby guests.

Guardians of the Galaxy very much the same story as Soarin. Posted wait of 80mins took 105. At merge they would only take 5-10 Standby guests and fill in all the rest with Lighting Lane, and the CM would wait for LL guests to fill in the gaps avoiding using Stand by.

While in line for Guardian I saw 3 partys around me purchase Genie Plus and get a return time for Guardians within 20mins.


If this is how Disney is going to manage thier queues, then I'm done with Disney as it's clear the guest experience is no longer a priority.

 

[el_super]

Genie has made standby lines miserable.

There can't be *that* many people using it at DLR? Is there?

Maybe the extra $5 wasn't enough of a deterrent.

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

Did 18 rides in 12 hours in the park yesterday, including Rise. Genie+ slowed down a couple queues (notably Space Mountain and HMH) but still seemed manageable.

The key is to stay past the fireworks, as always. Last night was a cold weeknight. The park was moderately busy for a weekday but it is December.

 

[mickEblu]

Genie has made standby lines miserable.

Today I waited in a posted wait of 25mins for Soarin, it took 55min. When I got to merge they were only taking 2 party's of Standby guests and all the rest Lighting Lane. Despite the LL queue not being backed up, the CM would wait for LL guests to come and would not fill the gap with standby guests.

Guardians of the Galaxy very much the same story as Soarin. Posted wait of 80mins took 105. At merge they would only take 5-10 Standby guests and fill in all the rest with Lighting Lane, and the CM would wait for LL guests to fill in the gaps avoiding using Stand by.

While in line for Guardian I saw 3 partys around me purchase Genie Plus and get a return time for Guardians within 20mins.


If this is how Disney is going to manage thier queues, then I'm done with Disney as it's clear the guest experience is no longer a priority.

The waiting for LL people to show up is by far the most concerning part of your post. Why would they do that? Like show up to the line in general or just that specific point in the queue?

 

[TP2000]

Genie has made standby lines miserable.

Today I waited in a posted wait of 25mins for Soarin, it took 55min. When I got to merge they were only taking 2 party's of Standby guests and all the rest Lighting Lane. Despite the LL queue not being backed up, the CM would wait for LL guests to come and would not fill the gap with standby guests.

Guardians of the Galaxy very much the same story as Soarin. Posted wait of 80mins took 105. At merge they would only take 5-10 Standby guests and fill in all the rest with Lighting Lane, and the CM would wait for LL guests to fill in the gaps avoiding using Stand by.

While in line for Guardian I saw 3 partys around me purchase Genie Plus and get a return time for Guardians within 20mins.


If this is how Disney is going to manage thier queues, then I'm done with Disney as it's clear the guest experience is no longer a priority.

In their defense and just playing Devil’s advocate here, were there empty seats being launched at Soarin’ that couldn’t be filled during that long pre-boarding process? Were there empty seats in your elevator at Guardians that could have been filled prior to that meandering boiler room queue after the Racoon pre-show room?

If they are sending empty seats in elevators and hang gliders and rockets and boats and clamshells 10+ minutes and 25 yards past the old Fastpass merge points, then there’s a problem.

But if they are just prioritizing Lightning Lane customers to fill in the final 5 to 10 minutes of queue and pack the pre-show areas to not send empty seats, then it would seem the CM’s are merely doing their jobs correctly.

 

[Emmanuel]

Was at the parks for a couple of hours yesterday. Since I wasn't there for long I didn't pay for Genie+ but I did use the individual lightning lane for Webslingers which was priced at $7. Went to Webslingers after the Christmas Fantasy parade and the standby line at Webslingers was 45 minutes. The wait using LL was 10-15 minutes since there wasn't a lot of people using LL for the ride at the time.

I plan to try out Genie+ next time.

 

[Rob562]

Soarin was our one bad post-Genie+ experience too, though I'm hoping it was just a matter of growing pains in estimating the Standby queue and how G+ affects it. After using Genie+ on our full day in the parks Friday the 10th, we had some time on Saturday before our evening flight. While walking by we decided to hop in the Standby line because it was posted at 25 minutes and was relatively short in the outside queue.

While we waited, we observed the posted Standby wait fluctuate wildly every few minutes. 25, 50, 30, 35, 50, 25... Once indoors, there was a fairly constant stream of G+ people coming in, and the Standby line slowed to a crawl. My bf was getting frustrated with how few were being let in from Standby, but I pointed out that they were following close enough to the ratio they should be. The downside was that our wait did end up around 50+ minutes. (We likely wouldn't have waited that long)

-Rob

 

[TP2000]

The waiting for LL people to show up is by far the most concerning part of your post. Why would they do that? Like show up to the line in general or just that specific point in the queue?

It seemed as though he was describing the old “merge” point at the bottom of the ramp that leads past the historical photos after you first enter the Soarin building. It’s at that point where a CM stands and directs you to either the further queues that lead to the left theater or the right theater.

Which is why I posed the thought that so long as there weren’t empty seats in the theaters, the CM there prioritizing newly arrived Lightning Lane customers was simply doing their job correctly.

 

[DCBaker]

Here is the current weekend rate change for Web Slingers and Radiator Springs Racers (both were $7)

View attachment 606472

View attachment 606473

Pricing has increased again for these two attractions - now $18 each with the holiday approaching.

 

[waltography]

Finally had the chance to try Genie+ on yesterday's trip and I came out of it pretty confused—we left with the impression that Genie+ is so, so bad, but necessary for days as busy as yesterday's.

The overall Genie interface is just so bad from a UX perspective, with the biggest offender being the tip board. Why would I use the tip board to look up wait times when we've been trained to look at a map for wait times for the past few years? Why must I scroll through a long list and scan for Genie+ accessible attractions when MaxPass' initial system worked fine? Why does the app insist I look at the DCA tip board even after I've already parkhopped?

As a separate question, does anyone know how flexible they are with Lightning Lane windows? We waited in RSR for around an hour and 15 minutes but then had to leave the line because our Guardians LL window was about to close and we didn't want to risk it, so that was a major bust for the morning.

 

[Emmanuel]

Used Genie Plus on Christmas and this is what I observed

For a trip planner, its not really reliable although it makes this up by providing an alternative in the event its recommended ride is temporarily closed. Also the fact that it recommended getting a spot for A Christmas Fantasy 20 minutes before the parade started even though I was already waiting for it an hour prior to the parade start.

For LL, I feel like the $20 is worth it if you're able to use it for multiple attractions. I certainly wouldn't buy Genie Plus if I know I'm only gonna be around for a few hours.

I was able to use it for the following:

Haunted Mansion
Smugglers Run
Space Mountain
Star Tours
Buzz Lightyear
Guardians of the Galaxy
Soarin
Toy Story
Indiana Jones (It broke down so it turned into a multiple experience LL which I ended up just using at Indy anyway)

I also bought an LL for Rise which meant I spent $40 total.

Didn't buy one for Spiderman and I used the single rider line for Racers.

 

[aaronml]

Looks like we might now be seeing a “permanent” price increase for ILLs for RSR and WS. I was expecting prices to drop back down to $8 during the week and $12 during the weekend like it was before the holidays.

Today prices only dropped down to $12, which makes me think that weekends might stay at $18 for the foreseeable future.

 

[Nirya]

Ok, so I might be going to Disneyland on Thursday and have very much tuned out of Disneyland stuff for the past few months. What do I need to know about Genie+ before I go to make this go as smooth as possible?

 

[mickEblu]

Ok, so I might be going to Disneyland on Thursday and have very much tuned out of Disneyland stuff for the past few months. What do I need to know about Genie+ before I go to make this go as smooth as possible?

Buy it. Stand By wait times look gross.

There is a 2 hour cool down period and you can only hold one lightning lane at a time so utilize the Lightning Lane for some of the smaller rides like Autopia and Buzz that typically have instant return times or at least under an hour. As opposed to rides like Space Mountain whose return time can average two hours + out on a busy day. If you re going early I’d knock out Space and/ or Indy in the morning just using standby if you re interested in those rides. If you get on again later with Genie + it’s a bonus.

RSR, Webslingers and ROTR are not part of Genie+. You pay for them separately and the cost ranges from $8 to$20 per person, per ride depending on the day. You can pay to ride these rides one time per day

 

[mickEblu]

Due to the nature of how some of these attractions load, Genie + has ensured that I wont be riding certain attractions unless I happen to buy Genie +. Two of these rides would be Soarin and Smugglers Run. Not that either were a Must Do for me but I did ride them once in a while.

 

[mickEblu]

So with all these new reservations open for the coming months do we think Disney has raised capacity, is there’s not as much demand as there was for the holidays or both? Capacity being raised in conjunction with Genie + effect on wait times is a scary thought.

 

[waltography]

So with all these new reservations open for the coming months do we think Disney has raised capacity, is there’s not as much demand as there was for the holidays or both? Capacity being raised in conjunction with Genie + effect on wait times is a scary thought.

I just assumed it was a mixture of lower demand outside of the holidays + omicron is making people skittish to go and so they're letting go of reservations in January, but I could be wrong on that. From what I can gather on Twitter as well, there's been a noticeable uptick in cast outbreaks but I don't think people are clued in on that specifically.

 

[Stevek]

My experience on one attraction last night...

Pirates queue ran down toward French market, back across bridge towards treehouse, back across bridge to main entrance. Posted time was 40 minutes, took 20 minutes. When we got off the ride, all of the switchbacks mentioned above were gone, just walked into the main entrance. Posted wait time, 40 minutes. So yeah, whatever wait times they are posting aren't necessarily accurate.

 

[Stevek]

So with all these new reservations open for the coming months do we think Disney has raised capacity, is there’s not as much demand as there was for the holidays or both? Capacity being raised in conjunction with Genie + effect on wait times is a scary thought.

Parks were still very busy last night for the 4 hours we were there so I don't think it's a demand issue per se. Yes, there is probably less people/demand than during the holidays but it's definitely not light for attendance.

 

[Dear Prudence]

I am still stuck on paying extra to get into a park that basically costs a kidney in entrance fees to ride dilapidated rides. :x